[JURIST] Manfred Nowak [official profile, DOC], the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website], has said that he is certain that the United States has secret detention facilities in Europe [JURIST news archive] and has demanded access to the facilities. In an interview with the Associated Press Thursday, Nowak cited the refusal [JURIST report] of the United States to provide details of interrogations used in terrorism trials in Germany as evidence, but did not say how this proved the existence of secret US facilities. Allegations of secret CIA-run detention facilities have prompted separate investigations by the European Parliament [official website] and the Council of Europe [official website]. US officials have neither confirmed nor denied the accusations and refuse to comment on matters of intelligence. A recent report [PDF text; COE materials] from COE Secretary General Terry Davis found no evidence [JURIST report] of secret US prisons in Europe. Investigators conducting a separate inquiry for the COE's parliamentary assembly, however, have asserted [JURIST report] that secret US prisons exist in Europe, but thus far have been unable to provide concrete proof.

About Paper Chase

Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible format.